Isla Vista Wind Statistics, Spring averages since 2006

The rose diagram shows how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal northern hemisphere spring. The longest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue suggests the strength, with the darkest shade of blue showing the strongest winds. It is based on 8682 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2007, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Isla Vista, located 47 km away (29 miles). There are not enough recording stations world wide to use actual wind data. Without question some coastal places have very localized wind effects that would not be predicted by NWW3.

According to the model, the most common wind at Isla Vista blows from the W. If the rose graph shows a fairly circular pattern, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Isla Vista. On the other hand, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more deep blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical northern hemisphere spring, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 9% of the time (8 days each northern hemisphere spring) and blows offshore 12% of the time (5 days in an average northern hemisphere spring). Over an average northern hemisphere spring winds stronger than >40kph (25mph) are expected on 16 days at Isla Vista

IMPORTANT: Beta version feature! Swell heights are open water values from NWW3. There is no attempt to model near-shore effects. Coastal wave heights will generally be less, especially if the break does not have unobstructed exposure to the open ocean.